Portable devices, such as, for example, integrated circuit cards, or mobile communication devices, such as cellular phones, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), can dispose of a communication interface for wireless short range communication with a terminal. Such an interface can be used for executing transactions between the mobile device and the terminal. The transactions may be financial transactions allowing making an electronic payment using the mobile device. Another example is an electronic ticketing transaction, in which an electronic ticket is provided by the mobile device and validated by the terminal.
One example of an interface for short range communication is a Near Field Communication (NFC) interface, which allows a communication with an NFC enabled terminal. The NFC technology is specified in ISO 18092 and 21481, ECMA 340.352 and 356, and ETSI TS 102 109 and allows contactless communication between devices over a short distance of about 10 to 30 centimeters. Near field devices comprise an NFC controller with a micro processor and memory and a magnetic loop antenna operating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz. The NFC controller controls the antenna on a physical level. On an application level, the execution of transactions is controlled by NFC applications, which are executed in a secure element connected to the NFC controller. Since the execution of transactions, such as financial transactions or ticketing transactions, usually involves sensitive data, the secure element provides a security architecture preventing unauthorized third parties from accessing the sensitive data.
Transactions are usually executed by passing the NFC capable device over an NFC enabled terminal. This means that usually only a very short time is available for the execution of a transaction. For this reason, the master element should be connected to the NFC controller in such a way that a sufficiently fast communication between the master element and the NFC controller is possible. In order to achieve this, special interfaces between the NFC controller and the master element have been developed. One such interface is the Single Wire Protocol (SWP) interface specified by the ETSI.
It has already been proposed to integrate the secure element into smartcard included in a mobile device, particularly into a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card that is typically included in a mobile communication device. The SIM card, which may be a SIM card according to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) specification or a Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) comprising a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) application according to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) specification, for example, provides secure identification and/or authentication services towards a mobile communication network, in which the mobile communication device is used. By integrating the master element into a SIM, card the already existing security architecture of the SIM card can be used.
However, to date, the integration of the master element into the SIM card or another smartcard requires that the SIM card or smartcard provides an interface for connecting the card to the NFC controller, which allows for a sufficiently fast communication between the secure element and the NFC controller. An integration of the secure element into a smartcard or SIM card, which does not dispose of such an interface, is not possible or bears the risk that a transaction cannot be completed in the time available.
Furthermore, NFC devices can be operated in a passive communication mode, in which they do not generate an own radio frequency field for communicating with a terminal. In the passive communication mode, the NFC controller can be powered by the radio frequency field generated by the terminal, so that the NFC device does not need to power the NFC controller with its own power source. Dedicated interfaces for connecting the master element to the NFC controller, such as the SWP, also allow for powering the unit including the secure element with the radio frequency field generated by the terminal. This is, however, not possible, when the master element is integrated into a smartcard or SIM card, which does not dispose of an interface supporting such a power supply of the smartcard or SIM card.